Governments, regulators increase scrutiny of DeepSeek

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which claims to rival ChatGPT at a lower cost, is facing increased global scrutiny over its data and security practices. The company stores users' personal data on servers in China, raising privacy and security concerns in multiple countries. Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea have banned government use of the app due to potential security risks, with South Korea temporarily suspending the app altogether. Germany has requested that major platforms like Apple and Google remove DeepSeek from their stores, while Italy's competition authority is investigating the startup for not warning users about potentially false information and initially blocked the app over transparency issues. India has restricted AI tool use in government work to protect sensitive data. The Netherlands is investigating DeepSeek’s data collection practices and has banned civil servants from using the app. The U.S. is considering penalties that would restrict DeepSeek's access to American technology and potentially ban its services. Meanwhile, Russia is taking a different approach, with President Putin directing collaboration between Sberbank and Chinese AI researchers, including DeepSeek.